How Vic Gained 2-3 Pounds Then Lost 2 Pounds in Two 24-hour Periods

Monday--July 3

Backstory--after two kayaking trips over the weekend I had not only maintained my new low weight (achieved apparently via hard labor and sports this summer), but had lost a new pound. I figured I might oughta boost the calories a bit today--I had a pound to play with and I didn't mind if I had it back. So....


Breakfast--uhhh, I think I had the usual cereal combination.

Lunch--Two shrimp eggrolls (would usually have one), leftover coleslaw--probably 2/3 c.

Dinner--(after addressing trumpet creeper briefly with dull ax) Go Out To Eat at local Chinese buffet...

Soup course: 1 small bowl of Hot and Sour, 1 small bowl of Egg Drop, jasmine tea

Appetizer: 2 mussells, 4 crab legs, 2 steamed gyoza

Main Course: spicy green beans, fillet of sole, ladle of tofu stir fry, 1/2 ladle of pepper steak, 1/2 ladle of chili chicken (nothing fried), large regular tea with lemon and Sweet n Low

Dessert: several pieces of fruit, and in lieu of my usual soft ice cream (machine was being cleaned) a brownie--perhaps this is what did it....(ha)

Woke up next morning to discover that I had, in fact, gained 2-3 pounds (hard to be precise). Hmm. Ate more than I would usually, but, uh, I don't see how I could have managed to eat an extra THREE THOUSAND to FOUR THOUSAND FIVE HUNDRED calories required to gain 2-3 pounds of actual weight. Perhaps the fact that I lay around or worked at computer most of the day meant I didn't burn much? Perhaps my carbs to protein ratio was too high? Perhaps--and this is likely, at least a pound of it was excess water weight from the sodium and MSG? See, this is the bizarre shit I go through with this particular syndrome--supposedly your body wants to retain weight more than the average person somehow--I still haven't figured it out.

Tuesday:

Breakfast--1 slice sugar-free bread toasted with ham deli meat and low-fat American cheese (nuked for a few seconds) 1/2 cup non fat vanilla yogurt with blueberries, 1/2 grapefruit with sliced strawberries, coffee w/ SFVSC

snacks consumed while kayaking for over an hour: 2 go lean hi protein cereal bars.

Lunch: (apres kayaking) Arby's: Cordon Bleu grilled chicken sandwich, from which I removed the bun entirely and ate the ham, chicken and cheese alone, a few slices of roast beef from Himself's sandwiches and 1/2 of a large spicy curly fry order (my favorite "go mad" food).

Dinner: (late that night while lying, drained on the couch) Frozen South Beach Diet meal--roast pork, pecans and green beans (one of my faves--has only 240 cals.)

Woke up to find that I had worked and sweated off two whole pounds of whatever body or water weight I had gained the day before--despite the fries, but really, I must have burned a ton of calories.

My experience of the summer so far, in which I have collectively lost 5 pounds and basically maintained that--despite working out at the gym religiously almost every day over the winter, is that my body loses weight and keeps it off when 1) it is ridiculously hot, too hot for me to really have much of an appetite, 2) when I perform hard, sweaty labor or sport--like kayaking and serious, ditch-digging, trumpet-creeper smashing yard work--even if I don't go to the gym as much. So, if I just joined a chain gang, I'd have it made, apparently--sigh.